Friday, January 11, 2013

Idle No More: Indigenous Uprising Sweeps North America

Idle
No More has organized the largest mass mobilizations of indigenous
people in recent history. What sparked it off and what’s coming next?

Idle No More Flash Mob outside of the Vancouver Convention Centre on December 27. Photo by Caelie Frampton.

It took weeks of protests, flash mobs, letters, rallies, and
thousands of righteous tweets, but Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper finally caved. He agreed to a meeting with the woman who had
been petitioning him for twenty-four days, subsisting on fish broth,
camped in a tepee in the frozen midwinter, the hunger striker and
Chief of the Attawapiskat Theresa Spence.

The mobilization around Chief
Spence’s hunger strike has already grown to encompass broader ideas of
colonialism and our relationship to the land.

No, this is not
normal parliamentary process. The hunger strike was a final, desperate
attempt to get the attention of a government whose relationship with
indigenous people has been ambivalent at best and genocidal at worst,
and force it to address their rising concerns. The meeting, set for this
Friday, January 11, is unlikely to result in any major changes to
Canada’s aboriginal policy. Yet the mobilization around Chief Spence’s
hunger strike has already grown to encompass broader ideas of
colonialism and our collective relationship to the land. The movement
has coalesced under one name, one resolution: Idle No More.

Closed-door negotiations spark a movement

The Idle No More movement arose as a response to what organizers call the most recent assault on indigenous rights in Canada: Bill C-45, which passed on December 14. Bill C-45 makes changes to the Indian Act, removes environmental protections, and further erodes the treaties with native peoples through which Canada was created.

On December 4,
when representatives of First Nations came to the House of Commons to
share their concerns about the proposed bill, they were blocked from entering
. A week later, after being repeatedly denied a meeting with Harper,
Chief Spence began her hunger strike. Since then, the movement has grown
to encompass a hundred years’ worth of grievances against the
Canadian government, which is required by Section 35 of the Constitution
Act to consult with native people before enacting laws that affect
them. Indigenous leaders accuse the Harper administration of “ramming
through” legislation without debate or consultation.

Even worse is the bill’s “weakening of environmental assessment and
the removal of lakes and rivers from protection,” says Eriel Deranger,
Communication Coordinator of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which
is directly downstream from toxic tar sands mining. She knows firsthand
the importance of protecting waterways from industrial pollutants.
“Indigenous people’s rights,” she says, “are intrinsically linked to the
environment.” She adds that the removal of such protections paves
the way for resource extraction, bringing Canada closer to its
self-stated goal of becoming a global energy superpower. This isn’t
just a native thing, Deranger says; this is something that affects
everyone.

And so begins the largest indigenous mass mobilization in recent
history. Native people and their allies from all over North America have
gathered to peacefully voice their support for indigenous rights:
they’ve organized rallies, teach-ins, and highway and train blockades,
as well as “flash mob” round dances at shopping malls.

With Twitter and Facebook as the major organizing tools, #idlenomore
has emerged as the dominant meme in the indigenous rights movement. In
addition to events across Canada, a U.S. media blitz tour has inspired solidarity actions
all over North America, as well as in Europe, New Zealand, and the
Middle East. Mainstream media and the Harper government are taking
notice.

Anger at environmental destruction in Canada boils over

But why now? The answer, says Deranger, is that people are ready. Idle No More arose at a moment of growing awareness of environmental justice issues, frustration with lack of governmental consultation, and widespread opposition to resource extraction on indigenous land—like the tar sands in Deranger’s home province of Alberta and the diamond mines in Chief Spence’s Ontario. It comes after years of grassroots organizing around indigenous rights—which are, in the end, basic human rights.

Visit almost any reserve in Canada, and you’re likely to see third
world social indicators in a first world country: high incarceration
rates, inadequate housing and sanitation, reduced life
expectancy—due in part to abnormally frequent suicides—lack of
employment and education opportunities, and substance abuse. This, after
more than a century of colonization by a government that refuses to acknowledge
its identity as a colonial power. Meanwhile, native youth are the
fastest-growing segment of Canada’s population, according to Aboriginal Affairs. Is it any surprise that they’re taking on repressive legislation and using social media to organize?

For Canadians—and potentially all North Americans—this is a moment of
reckoning. Just as Chief Spence’s hunger strike forced the issue with
Harper, Idle No More forces us all to confront the ugliness of our
collective colonial history, and to recognize that colonization
continues today.

It holds up a mirror to our society, questioning the historical
narrative we’re all taught to believe. It asks: On what values was our
country founded? And, because identity is created out of that
narrative: Who are we, really? And who do we want to be?

Kristin Moe wrote this article for YES! Magazine,
a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas
and practical actions. Kristin writes about climate, grassroots
movements and social change.

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